 |
| The new Toronto streetcar made by Bombardie |
The decision has been met with a mix of sentimental sadness and scorn.
“I like these streetcars because they have a history in Toronto,” says 37-year-old Kenneth, riding at the back of one of the old trams on line 511, running along Bathurst Street.
“They’re an icon.”
Toronto’s original 19th century trolley cars were pulled by horses, before the cars were powered by electricity in the 1920s.
The historic tall, narrow, red and white streetcars, formally known as Canadian Light Rail Vehicles (CLRV), were commissioned in the late 1970s.
To board, riders must climb three big steps. To request a stop, one pulls down on a yellow cord pinned to windows running the length of the trolley car.
Toronto is one of the rare major cities in North America, along with San Francisco, to have maintained major tramway networks. Lines still exist in a handful of cities including Cleveland and New Orleans.
 |
| The old Toronto streetcar, going on retirement 29 December |
One of the old hulking trolley cars was splashed in brightly colored paint and is one of a handful still in circulation. The final day of service will be December 29.
Most of the rest of the streetcars have already been replaced by new trams built by Bombardier.
In 2009, the Montreal-based company won a contract from the city for more than Can$1 billion (US$750 million) to provide 204 new streetcars.
After several delays, the company accelerated assembly work and promised to complete the order by the end of December. Nearly all of them have been delivered.
For Scott Haskill, manager of project development at the transit commission, the old trams — which were ageing and not adapted to those with disabilities — had “come to the end of their natural life.”
The new Flexy Outlook streetcars, with softer curved features that echo new Bombardier models already in use in Berlin and Brussels, have low floors and no steps.
They are also longer and wider and can hold more passengers, Haskill told AFP.
“We needed bigger streetcars because the routes are so busy and we needed more capacity,” he explained.
Not everyone is sad to see the old streetcars go.
“I don’t care,” says Bernadette Beaupres, a 61-year-old commuter who rides public transit an hour each day and describes the experience as “absolutely horrible.”
Because the streetcars share space with cars and bicycles in a greater metropolitan area that is home to six million residents, they contribute to, as well as suffer from, gridlock.
The new trams are “fancy looking,” Beaupres admits as she steps off a new streetcar on Queen Street, which runs almost the entire length of the city.